Objective: to describe and compare sexual and reproductive history as well as reactions to the pregnancy and attendance in antenatal care, family classes and childbirth of fathers of babies born to teenage mothers and fathers of babies born to average aged mothers.
Design: a descriptive comparative study using a structured questionnaire for data collection.
Setting: eleven postnatal wards at the five obstetric and gynaecological departments in the Stockholm area.
Participants: 132 fathers of babies born to primiparous teenage mothers (Group A) and the same number of fathers of babies born to primiparous women aged between 25-29 years (Group B) who were present in the postnatal wards.
Findings: 43 of Group A compared to 17% of the Group B fathers had their first intercourse before 15 years of age. This early sexual debut was related to other health hazard, such as use of illicit drugs and cigarette smoking. The majority of the pregnancies in Group A were unplanned but most fathers reacted positively to the pregnancy and participated in the antenatal care. In contrast, only half of these fathers attended family classes.
Key conclusions and implications for practice: fathers of babies born to teenage mothers differed from fathers of babies to older mothers regarding reproductive background as well as involvement during pregnancy. The findings of this study challenge midwives to organise clinical practice in order to meet the specific needs of this group.